One topic of prescription drug diversion not discussed as much as it ought to be these days involves your medicine cabinet. It is a huge source of prescription drug abuse for youths between 12 and 17 years of age, mostly because it is easily accessible and because teenagers have little ability to doctor shop or pass forged or altered prescriptions.

This would be enough of a concern if youths were the only individuals accessing these drugs, but there are others with access, too, whom you might not ever suspect. Over the years, I have seen cases in which individuals who paint houses, deliver refrigerators, or lay carpet pilfer drugs from bathroom medicine cabinets. Most home dwellers would not think twice about protecting these potentially dangerous and valuable commodities that sit for months or years in that “special” cabinet in the bathroom. [Read more…]